


Introjection

by After232



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27192949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/After232/pseuds/After232
Summary: Origin story stuff for a character of mine.This will get pretty heavy. I don't write anything explicit, but if references and nods to heavy topics are difficult for you, please don't read!





	Introjection

“Ah,” came the quiet, sickly voice, “I’ll rest for now, yes.”

Ma was going to go to sleep for the night. It was already eleven on the clock, and yet pa wasn’t home yet. She had just tucked him into bed, her gentle smile only a momentary distraction from her frail hands and pale face. Even though he was young, he knew she was ill. Maybe pa was out to get a doctor after all.

But the conversation kept replaying in his head, even after mother closed the door and the light disappeared.

* * *

“Ma, you look tired,” he had said, “You should rest.”  
“You know I need to wait for your father,” she said, a weak chuckle escaping her thin lips.  
“But ma, you fell over just now, you should sleep!”

She winced. It may not have occurred to him now what that meant, but he would come to realise the reality of things in due course. For now, perhaps ignorance truly was meant to be bliss.

Nevertheless, she continued to hold up her smile. It wasn’t one she could afford to drop so easily. Not in front of her child, anyway.

“Where is pa?”

The look in her eyes was hollow. Ma’s mind flipped through blurred images of the man her child called pa, the man who occupied the same space as her. The shouting, the sound of glass shattering, wood breaking. He hadn’t come home yet. It was likely going to be another one of those nights. Her bones felt weak, but she wanted to hold on for a few more moments.

“Pa is bringing medicine back. He should be on his way. Maybe it’s taking him some time.”

She slowly turned her eyes away, looking at the floor beside the bed. He kept looking at her. It was a heavy moment of silence, but he repeated his words one more time.

“Ma, you should rest.”

“Ah,” came the quiet, sickly voice, “I’ll rest for now, yes.” She turned her eyes back to her child, leaning in to kiss his forehead, and ran her bony fingers through his hair. This time, when she smiled, it was genuine.

When she closed the door behind him, she coughed quietly into her hand, and feebly made her way into her own rickety bed.

He didn’t sleep. The sound of intermittent, muffled coughing played through half the night. It stopped at some point, but he wasn’t sure how long it had been. Could have been minutes. Could have been hours.

If pa ever even came home, Quentin didn’t notice.

**Author's Note:**

> Origin story stuff for a character of mine.  
> This will get pretty heavy. I don't write anything explicit, but if references and nods to heavy topics are difficult for you, please don't read!


End file.
